Have an Attitude of Gratitude!

Irmã M... é tão legal, não é? oops I was thinking as I typed. Good news with that: I thought in Portuguese, bad news is that I wrote in Portuguese ha-ha. Sister M... is really cool, isn't she? Is what I wanted to type. 

So I'm alright. The transfer went by without too much trouble. The metro train lost power and stopped on the tracks but luckily that happened before I got on it. 

My companion is Elder Camikado. He's 19. He, his younger bro, his aunt and uncle and his cousins are members. His parents are divorced and he lived with his mom before the mission. He put college on hold to serve even though his own family (the members of the church) told him not to. He's kinda quiet and I think he's got one of the difficulties I've got which is taking a while to open up to new people. Oh he's a Japanese Brazilian hence the Japanese name.

Okays... my new area is over the top rich. Yes it's clean which made me happy. There are a lot more apartment buildings than my last area. The buildings are also bigger and have more security which makes it harder to enter. There are also gated communities. 

I ate lunch in one called Eldorado this week. That's right, I not only found Eldorado, I ate lunch there! As for the work in the area, we've got one family of investigators, one person almost ready to be baptized, and she'll be the first convert baptism in a year in this ward. 

Oh and the Bishop changed on my first Sunday here so they've got a lot of new going on here. The last bishop will be moving to Rexburg to study at BYUI soon.

I live in a rather large (for missionary standards) house with only my companion, and yes I have my own bed yay! I should eat a bit more. 

I've made some new friends. This zone is full of sisters and honestly I prefer it like that because sisters are more fun than elders ha-ha. One sister, Sister Araujo, was already talking to me like we'd know each other for a while as soon as I arrived, and when she realized I was confused she explained that one of her old companions Sister Dias talked about me a lot and said I was really cool. Aw shucks :3 (Sister Dias was in the Mogi das Cruzes zone with me a while ago)

I'm pretty happy. I think I might take a while to get used to this place, but I think I'll like it. Oh and I get to have an interview with President Silcox Friday! :)

I do feel the Lord's hand in my life and I did remember to try out your challenge a bit this week. It worked out a bit.

I love you mom!!

The weather here is really hot.

My week was kinda slow, people not being home and all. We didn't get too much done this week but I did get to do 2 baptismal interviews and then watch the baptisms the next day!

The weather here this week was really hot.

You mentioned the youth and that reminded me that we had a total of 5 young men attend our branch this Sunday! That was the first time since I arrived!

That sounds like an awesome experience you had at the temple! Really pretty cool about all the temple work and family history that's been going on! And that's really curious that our relative had his work done in Brazil!

I still remember the last time I went to do baptisms for the dead and the Stoltenburg family asked me to be baptized for their men. That was the time that I felt the spirit the strongest in all the times I went.

Oh something I never thought I'd do in the mission: We went house hunting! We've been trying to find a new place to live because of the situation of our current house. But that is no longer my preoccupation because I'm being transferred tomorrow. 

I know only 3 people in my new zone. I don't know my companion. It's kinda weird, but during all the other transfers I always got super nervous but this time it's all good. I'm not really nervous at all. I'm being transferred to Vila Ema with Elder Camikado as my companion I'll be the senior companion and the district leader. 

Oh and I still haven't pulled the journal back out but I might this transfer.

I don't really have much else...

I love you!

Rice Burgers

I didn't really have any successes but my district did. The elders from Tiradentes 1 (I'm in Tiradentes 2) baptized a young woman Saturday and have three more youth for this week and one of them happens to live in our area. But we all only found out this week, because they always taught him in the church.

Our new investigators C... and M... are alright I think. We only managed to visit them once this week and only M... was home. They're part of a part member family (the only members, C...'s daughters, are inactive and have moved away) and have already had a lot of experience with the elders and the church. Our first step is that we need them to return to church and see if they change their minds a little.

This week was rather slow. There was the world wide training this week and it was basically just a revision of last year's training session. But someone (I forgot who) said something I liked. "I know I'm teaching by the Spirit when I learn with what I said"

I did some baptismal interviews this week too which were cool. It's been a while since the last one I did.

I "cooked" rice, burgers, and fries for lunch Tuesday. It was alright. One Ir... made sweet rice for us this week because I asked her how to make it last week. That was good. :)

I ended up getting kinda sick at the end of the week. Stomach problems like always. They're really annoying.

Anyways, I love you!

A new president sworn into office last Friday!

(I like to challenge our children. So this week I challenged Elder Lundy... Here's a challenge for you - Every morning when you get up I want you to say...Today I am going to ask the Lord to provide me with a willing soul to be taught. Then get on your knees and ask him for that very person. Then put the happiest smile on your face and go about your day. It helps to listen to the still small voice after that prayer.)

I'll try out your challenge.

This week was wet as well. We had rain everyday all day... We managed to get some new investigators! And we got another referral who actually was referred to us in person this Sunday at church!

Poor Sis A... and Br S. :( (I'll be honest the first thing I thought when I read about Sis A... was "Do what you're told and you won't get hurt")

Something that put a smile on my face this week: Elder Ewerton called to tell me that our investigator G... from Bras Cubas was recently baptized! Then while Ewerton and I were chatting he told me he considers me as his Pai (mission slang: Pai, translation: dad, used for trainers) instead of his real trainer.

Something else great is that F...'s mom visited the church this Saturday for the Work Forum that was held. She finally visited! Now we need to get her to go on Sunday!

Best thing I ate this week... not sure, but I made lunch for us two time this week. The second was legit :3 I made chicken stroganoff! That happens to be the thing I learned this week too.

We got two new investigators this week! We had to go around in the rain a lot this week. My feet were always wet :/ but at least it finally worked out.

I'll keep trying with the pictures but idk if they'll work.

Wow... (Internet) connection is pretty annoying when it hides from us.

I'm curious what you think about Trump becoming president. Everyone here is freaking out like it's the end of the world (Brazil loves Obama...) It's rather annoying because everyone keeps asking me what I think and I don't have an opinion...

So this week we'll have a worldwide training session! It'll be cool.

Anyways, I love you! 

Hmm...

Message: People have the wrong idea about repentance. People always get nervous or even scared to confess and to repent but that's not what should happen. Christ, our elder brother, didn't and doesn't want us to suffer. He doesn't want us to have to deal with fear, pain, and shame. He paid the price for us and is asking us all to repent so that we don't need to carry around those feelings and that emotional and spiritual weight. But... he can't help us unless we let him.

We'll just have to work harder

Poor Sister Lindsay...(Our Sister Lindsay is being transferred her last transfer after being in our ward for 11 months) but I hope everything works out well for her in her new area.

Wow :( that's rough for the M...Family (A member in our ward had their home burn to the ground : / )

We've been getting out and working more. But of course because we're putting in more effort, our commitments started falling through more :/ We'll just have to work harder. 

We didn't do anymore sanding this week because the brother didn't call us for it. But I did start up exercising again. AND I started playing in the kitchen. Our lunch fell through Saturday and my companion doesn't cook, so I ended up making our food. (This is the 4th time this transfer I think) I made us hamburger and rice filled omelets :3 I also tried out making cinnamon flavored sweet rice and it wasn't half bad! I weighed myself this morning and I weighed 172 pounds.

I've said many times that agency is annoying... but oh well nothing we can do about it. (Our ward had a RS activity and only 20 sisters showed :p) Carl and Matt still write me and stuff :) 

And bytheway, I've found it's really easy to do stupid humor in Portuguese because they have SO MANY words that have multiple definitions like the word for sock is "meia" which also can mean half and 6 (half dozen) I've already made a few jokes just with that word. :3

I love you too!

Sanding for Service...

Something new I learned about my comp... He's not too excited to go out and work, but I think he and I will be able to help each other. I'm not too big a fan of this area because it's full of apartments which are difficult to work with so I'm not too excited to go out and work here either, but we had one day where we spent nearly 12 whole hours out and working (honestly a lot of that time was spent walking) but it seemed like he was kinda proud of himself for managing to stay out an working for that whole time. We managed to find a few of our referrals and at least one of them marked for a visit this Tuesday! This week was alright. We got to help out with a service project again. Sanding the plastered walls of a brother's new apartment to prepare to paint. Elder Moreira has decided that I've got a sanding machine in my hand because I was two times faster than him and he was the  one that was working with sanding thingy (not and electric sander, just a sander with a handle) We also had two groups of people call us out in the street to talk with us and ended up getting their contact info... sadly (for us) they live in the other elders' area. (I asked Elder Lundy when was the last time he went to the mission home.) I rarely get to the mission home. The only people that go are the Zone leaders once a month for a leadership meeting. And there are the people that need to go to take care of legal stuff and such. My bed is still in the same place. I'm just glad I've got a bed instead of that small couch. My allergies aren't too bad. We've been having a lot of rain so there's not really a lot of pollen or anything.

We've been able to help a bit more with service projects and I'm "teaching" English to my Christmas Skype host family.  I'm still annoyed with being a district leader, but I think I at least discovered why.  I don't like being the middle-man.  I asked Elder Lundy where a certain family was moving to when they come to the U.S.A..

They plan on going to Utah because they've got a medical thing set up for one of their sons there. Their son was bitten or something like that and he's alright now, but they want to make sure that he's better than alright.

We had a lot of rain lately. And it's just gonna continue until March I've heard.

Ha-ha for some reason I thought about South Carolina getting snow this week!

Anyways, I love you!

Happy New Year 2017!

I hope you had a fun vacation Dad!

S... and K... (my host family for Christmas) told us about that Passengers movie and said they were planning on seeing it.

Ha-ha did Grandma freak out when you started dismantling her DVD player in front of her?

(Dad was able to fix it for her.)

You guys don't have any snow? Lame!

Questions:

1. So how was your  week? Are you handling being a District leader as well as I know you can? I've found that being a leader doesn't win you friends, but someone has to do it. So it might as well be someone good.

2. Tell me all about your week.

3. Your new companion.

4. Your adventures.

5. Your successes and lessons learned.

6. What do they do for New Years in Brazil?

7. What plans do you have for this week?

Answers:

1. I know I can handle being a district leader. I just don't like doing it because it eats up a lot of time

2. My new companion showed up on Tuesday. We managed to visit a few people this week, but we need more investigators. And the weather was either super hot or raining  (and usually when it rains here it's super heavy)

3. Elder Moreira is 18 years old. This is his second area, I'm his fourth companion, and he's in his 7th month. He's from Fortaleza, Ceara. My third companion from there. This mission is full of elders and a few sisters from there. He and his younger brother are the only members in his family (for now) and they've both got about 4 years in the church. 

4. Adventures? I don't really think I had any. I did some physical labor this week! We helped out with sanding a wall so the "Ir..." can paint his new apartment sooner. My whole right side of my back was aching the next day ha-ha. Just imagine if he and his wife had to do it all alone... ugh...

5. Well on Sunday I was the last person to bare testimony during sacrament meeting. I almost didn't go up but I ended up hearing a little voice in my head telling me what I had to say was more important than how I felt about speaking in front of everyone. Now I just need to remember that.

6. Oh and for New Years, you guys beat me. I went to bed around 11 because I was tired and didn't feel like forcing myself to stay up. The fireworks woke me up at midnight but I just stayed in bed and rolled over to face the wall.

Lots and lots of fireworks and parties. 

7. We're going to search for new investigators. We've got a number of referrals in a place close to our house, but I've never been there before and I don't have a map so we'll actually have to search.

I love you!

Love You